Grey skies blended with grey seas but the humidity and general strangeness of a reasonably quiet cruise past rocky islands and the man-made harbour area, coupled with the ghostly feeling accompanying the near-complete lack of seeing anyone else around made for a wonderful experience nonetheless.

You know you’re not far from the port when the pilot boat comes alongside the cruise ship to allow the local expert to guide the huge vessel to its dock.

Keelung is typical of the industrial ports that cruise ships tend to dock at because of their size. Cranes, containers, towers, warehouse buildings, and other ships and boats made up most of the view from the ship as it passed from the open sea into close proximity to the city. I don’t actually mind these views because there are lots of patterns and repetitive shapes that help to form decent imagery for photographs and I have a fondness for the raw power in brutalist design anyway which you tend to see in some form or another around the world in docks.

I liked the attempt to brighten up some of the industrial elements of the port with imagery, even if it didn’t quite bring the splash of colour that perhaps was intended with the decidedly grey conditions of the day on which we approached Keelung.

Coming in closer to the city of Keelung it was interesting to see the the modern buildings, dirty-looking from the dampness in the air and the grime from the industrial location, contrasted with the clean, bright yellows of the taxis and buses waiting for tourists, as well as the ancient temple structures on the hillsides around.

• Beagle Channel Cruise (Part 1)
• Beagle Channel Cruise (Part 2)
• Beagle Channel Cruise (Part 3)
• Beagle Channel Cruise (Part 4) – Sea Lions And Cormorants

We’d spent enough time for everyone on our boat and the other one that was out on the excursion with us to slowly circle the rocky island on which the sea lions were mostly congregated so we then set off again down the straits. The freezing wind picked up along with our speed and most people disappeared back under cover but I stayed outside and took in the still wonderful views of the snow-capped mountains that lined the edges of the Beagle Channel. As I’ve already mentioned in one of the earlier posts in this series of pictures I was the only person who remained on deck for the entirety of the cruise trip.

Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse

The furthest point we reached from the Star Princess was Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse which guards the sea entrance to the east of Ushuaia. As with our stop to see the sea lions our boat here cut power for several minutes at a time and allowed us to slowly drift around the island on which the lighthouse was situated and take photos.

The first of the towers that we ventured into was…

Tour Saint-Nicolas De La Rochelle

Situated on the eastern side of the harbour entrance and the obvious first stop was Tour Saint-Nicolas de la Rochelle, one half of the gateway to the harbour. This tower and the one opposite it were built from the mid to late 1300s. The original plan was to create an arch between the towers as well although this was never realised.

The foundations of this tower were wood, driven into the mud of the water basin, but the tower itself is so heavy that there is a very slight lean to it. It’s still perfectly safe to explore these days, though, and a series of steep, spiralling staircases and narrow corridors curving around the inside of the tower wall and offering entry points into the central, circular section at a number of spots eventually lead up onto the roof where some excellent views of La Rochelle and the surrounding region can be seen. We’d timed our visit to coincide with a bank of low-level cloud so the French city wasn’t quite as pretty as it could have been but as you’ll see from the photos of the next towers we visited that cloud quickly evaporated in the pleasing breeze and rising temperature of the day.

Tour De La Chaine

Getting to the second of the towers required us to retrace our approach hugging the harbour on our left and around the attractive waterfront shops, bars, and restaurants.

The Tour de la Chaine (or Chain Tower) is the western side tower guarding the entrance to La Rochelle’s harbour. This was the tower that controlled access to the port and as you might be able to guess from its name it did this using a chain that could be strung between it and Tour Saint-Nicolas either for defensive purposes or to ensure that tax was duly applied to arriving or departing vessels. In fact, the chain itself was originally controlled from a smaller tower alongside this one although that was removed in order to widen the entrance.

This was the tower that was closed when we visited although, on seeing the door was open, we ventured inside where we were told that we could pass through and onto the small, fortified area closer to the harbour entrance. We did, because we could, and so that I could snap a few photos. If we’re allowed to go somewhere then you can pretty much guarantee we will just to say we have because that’s what travelling’s all about for us.

Tour De La Lanterne

The most visually impressive of the three towers was the Tour de la Lanterne (or Lantern Tower), situated at the western end of the Rue sur les Murs, the same section of defensive wall that housed the Tour de la Chaine. This “road on the walls” featured some attractive architecture among its houses’ designs.

Built in the middle of the 1400s the Tour de la Lanterne is the oldest lighthouse on the Atlantic coast and if that’s not a good enough reason just to visit it then I don’t know what is. My advice if you’re visiting, though, is to hang around and wait for a bit outside if you see a queue or a large group of people entering. The entry doorway is narrow and the actual route into the tower is on your right as you pass in. However, to gain entry you have to head into a small room straight ahead to have your “three towers” ticket approved or buy a single ticket, then head back out and through the door you passed on the way in. This is fine if there are only a few of you. This was chaotic when we turned up as it was a heaving mass of bodies trying to head one way then another then squeezing past. But still very worth it.

In addition to serving as a lighthouse and providing obvious defensive capabilities to the city of La Rochelle the tower was also a prison for a long period. The interior walls are filled with carvings in the stone from former prisoners, some of the more important of which are highlighted or explained in further detail on plaques as you ascend the structure. It’s incredibly fascinating to see some of the writing, the dates, the artwork even of formerly-incarcerated people long dead and it’s shocking just how many people there were held at a time in some of the rooms; it must have been hell in there.

It’s not a true holiday for us unless we’ve climbed to the top of some steep structure panting and sweating and shaking our heads wondering why we put ourselves through such torture. But we know why really, and that’s so we can get great views from wherever we are. Climbing to the top of the Tour de la Lanterne and looking all around La Rochelle was a fabulous experience. The clouds were little more than distant haze at this point and the warmth of colours along with the contrast of the blues of the sky and sea against the greenery of nearby parkland and the red-tiled, white-walled buildings of the city was an absolute joy to behold.

The walkway around the former housing for the lantern that gave the tower its name and lighthouse-functionality is only wide enough for one person at a time and there is no indication as to which direction you should head around it. Expect lots of reversing and trying other directions and repeating that until you finally make the circuit. A minor inconvenience for that wide, beautiful landscape in every direction and so you can say that you reached the highest point on the tower.

If you’re visiting La Rochelle then it’s really worth the effort and very reasonable price to spend an hour or so exploring the three towers protecting its old harbour area. Each tower has its own charm and associated bit of history and each provides unique views of the city that you shouldn’t miss.

Upon completion of our excursion to Santiago de Compostela we boarded the Sapphire Princess for the final time ahead of a sea day on the way back to Southampton and set off from A Coruña. We always like to head out onto our balcony as the ship departs unless we’re in the middle of some other activity on the cruise ship (typically showering, drinking, or taking part in the trivia) and this was no different. The Spanish port was pretty unremarkable and the departure away from the dock was smooth. It’s possible to stand on top of the bridge on most Grand-class cruise ships like Sapphire Princess and this usually provides a good spot for those without balconies or who want to get a far wider view with a good vantage point for these port departures and arrivals.

Coming into or out of ports and harbours requires a pilot to board the cruise ship and guide it safely through the channels. With their local knowledge and skills spent the pilot will then be picked up by the pilot boat and leave the cruise ship to proceed under the direction of the bridge crew.

Looking across the stretch of water that would take us into the Bay of Biscay we could see Oleiros, a municipality of A Coruña. This area of the province had a long, sandy beach and some rockier cliffs and it was against these cliffs that we soon noticed increasingly large waves were breaking. At this point in our cruise away from Spain we hadn’t really noticed much vertical movement on the ship at all.

But as the ship moved further from the mainland and more into open waters it lost the shelter from the wind it had benefitted from up to this point and we suddenly found ourselves rising and falling with the increasing swells coming towards and across the bow of the ship. From other balconies around us we could hear loud exclamations of either joy or humorous panicking as the ship would reach the peak of a wave and that momentary almost-weightless feeling would take over before the descent into the next trough started. Being on a cruise ship in rough seas is like having a fairground attraction thrown into your holiday for free.

The size of the waves crashing against the headland we were passing can be guessed at when comparing the spray with the Mera lighthouse you can see in the following pictures and which is 11 metres high.

The waves subsided as we got into deeper water which was a shame. We’d have quite happily spent the entire next day crossing the Bay of Biscay rocking up and down. Still, as a taster for what the sea conditions in the area could throw at us it was nice to experience and we look forward to taking another cruise through that part of the world at some point in the future.

The next port of call was Xiamen in the Fujian province of China. Xiamen was a city we’d not heard anything about prior to booking the cruise and, indeed, didn’t really find out a whole lot about in the lead-up to it either. Arriving fairly early in the morning but still having trouble sleeping in because our body clocks weren’t adjusting very well to the initial long flight eastwards that had rapidly lost us hours followed by the cruising generally westwards that was now triggering time changes overnight and slowly gaining us hours, we had plenty of time to kill as we cruised towards the port. We had another wander around the ship, taking more photos, enjoying the warmth of the sunshine.

It wasn’t at all surprising to see the main swimming pool devoid of any people braving its frigid temperatures especially once we started to move from the open sea, passing Zhangzhou harbour on the port side and starting to follow the curve of Xiamen island clockwise. This had the effect of funnelling a pretty nippy north wind down the length of the ship which you’ll be able to hear in the video at the end of this post.

The daily Radio Taiso exercises were being shown on the movie screen out on the deck and there were – as usual – people joining in. We made a point to join in on sea days only so contented ourselves with simply observing for a while as Diamond Princess got closer to the Chinese city.

We decided to stay out on deck so that we could see any interesting elements on either the mainland or island rather than limiting ourselves to just what was visible from our balcony and we’re glad we did because there was some very odd-looking architecture on the port side, the Haicang district.

A pair of matching buildings were the most prominent sign of large construction as we cruised past the Xiagang residential district on our starboard side. When we’d been looking at maps of the city prior to our cruise this had been one area of interest on account of some interesting-sounding museums, historical and religious buildings, and even bars in close proximity. No tours or excursions went anywhere near here, though, and it was sufficiently far away and our time in the port was sufficiently limited that we weren’t quite confident enough we could get to it, do it justice, and get back to the ship. Were we to return and have more time in Xiamen this is part of the city that would definitely deserve more of a look around.

One of the most well-known attractions of Xiamen (apparently it’s one of the top attractions in China) is Gulangyu Island, a place with no cars or bikes permitted. Several excursions hit this island but we didn’t feel they offered very good value for money once we’d checked to see how much it cost to just take the ferry across on your own. While the ferry seemed cheap and while we’re always keen to take boat trips to places even when we’re cruising, though, we also didn’t think there was quite enough on the island to warrant a short stop for ourselves. Again, it’s one of those places that looks like it would be good to spend a large chunk of a day on simply because of the difficulty in getting around the place to find all the spots of interest.

After Gulangyu we then carried on through the deeper water of the channel between the island of Dayu on the port side and a smaller island on the starboard where a pylon spanning the channel between the island of Xiamen and the Chinese mainland and a lighthouse were situated.

From there it was a slow but steady approach to Xiamen’s international cruise terminal taking us closer to the bulk of the modern buildings of the city’s Dongdu district.

As Diamond Princess came alongside in Xiamen we spotted reflections of another cruise ship docked ahead of us, one with a yellow funnel. We never did work out which ship it was.

The video below (temporarily removed) covers some of the approach to Xiamen on Diamond Princess and gives you a feel for just how windy it got along that final channel towards the cruise terminal.

In the next post we’ll cover what we saw in Xiamen itself and our thoughts on the city as a cruise ship destination in general as well as what impact it had specifically for this Princess Cruises itinerary.

Malecón Boardwalk

The first stop was several kilometres to the south of the port, a promenade area along the coast known as the Malecón. We found our bus, got aboard, and set off as our guide started to talk a little about the city, the country, and what we could expect from the excursion as a whole: Mexico with and without make-up on. A running theme of the guide’s commentary during the day would be political digs at Americans (who made up the bulk of the tour group) and the perception of Mexicans in their media. We found it mildly amusing but I’m not sure how some of the American passengers felt about constant reminders that Mexicans aren’t all unemployed, aren’t all trying to get to America, aren’t all on drugs, don’t all walk around with guns, etc. You can hear a little of the commentary in this short clip (temporarily removed) from our bus journey to the boardwalk area.

The Malecón is a long stretch of paved walkways along the beach decorated with palm trees, sculptures, and traditional stone patterns, and off which a lot of bars, restaurants, and gathering places for public events can be found.

Our tour of Puerto Vallarta started near the lighthouse – the distinctive black-and-white-striped Faro Del Malecón – which was built in the early 1930s and operated until the late 1970s. With the amount of travelling we do by sea and the amount of ports we end up visiting we see a lot of lighthouses on our travels; this has to be one of the smallest.

It was hot, as you might expect, but there was a nice breeze coming in off the Pacific Ocean and we could see not only people taking advantage of it and enjoying some of the watersport activities that this part of Puerto Vallarta is famous for – parasailing and jetskiing and windsurfing, for instance – but also some of the local wildlife in the form of several pelicans that came swooping in close as we gathered to listen to some of the history of the area.

The indigenous people of this part of Mexico are known as the Huichol and during a remodelling of the Malecón in 2011 the promenade had decorative stone patterns placed in it to reflect their culture. You can see some of the shapes in the photos below. The different shapes typically represent living forms but I’m not very good at interpreting the shapes and suspect that the Penguin With Chest Spikes and the Cthulhu Wearing Bunny Ears probably aren’t traditional creatures in the Huichol mythos.

The most prominent aspect of the Malecón are the pieces of public artwork. You can often find temporary pieces such as sand sculptures and some fairly amateur-looking arrangements but along the length of the boardwalk are some excellent commissioned works of art too. The small area in which we wandered included Triton And Mermaid by Carlos Espino and one of the city of Puerto Vallarta’s symbols, the Boy On The Seahorse by Rafael Zamarripa Castañeda, which is located by one of those city name signs that are always popular with tourists. This is the second naked boy riding a seahorse sculpture in Puerto Vallarta, not because you can never have too many naked boys riding seahorse sculptures (although that’s very likely true), but because the original was located on a rocky outcrop that was washed away in a storm. It was subsequently found after the replacement shown below was sculpted so the city now has two.

The Zócalo, Plaza De Armas

Crossing over the main road and heading inland one block from the Puerto Vallarta city sign brought us to the city’s main square, the Plaza de Armas. This square is bedecked with plants and flowers and contains a bandstand for public performances as well as a statue of Ignacio Vallarta, a former governor and the man after whom the city was named.

Adjacent to the plaza was City Hall laid out in a traditional courtyard style. Our group took advantage of some much-needed shade from the sun inside long enough to allow those who needed to use the toilets to do so. We didn’t need to go. On the landing of the main stairwell off the courtyard is a well-known, naive-style mural representing the foundation and growth of Puerto Vallarta by local artist Manuel Lepe.

Parish Church Of Our Lady Of Guadalupe

A mish-mash of architectural styles explains the rather unique look of the city’s main landmark symbol, the Parish Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The impressive feature on the exterior of the building is the crown sculpture atop the tower, the official name of which is Tecuntlanopeuh. This concrete crown was placed on the church in 2009, sculpted by Carlos Terres and replacing temporary structures that themselves had replaced the original crown which had been designed by José Esteban Ramírez Guareño and been in place from 1965 until 1995 when an earthquake hit the region. You can read more about the symbolism of the crown here: The Crown of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish.

We had a few minutes to look inside the church and were then led through the streets, roughly in a southeast direction towards the Cuale River with one brief stop in La Fuente Del Puente restaurant where we saw the first reference to a couple of Puerto Vallarta’s most famous residents of the past, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

Isla Cuale

One of several rivers that run through Puerto Vallarta, the Río Cuale has an islet near its mouth, an area with a notable population of stray cats and the former location of lower class housing that was evacuated when flooding during a hurricane in 1971 made inhabitation too dangerous. The Isla Cuale was later transformed into a cultural site. We crossed the river onto the islet (spotting a couple of American white ibis in the shallow water) and were given a short amount of free time to explore which essentially provided for two options: westwards, towards the coast, there was a large market place; eastwards, farther inland, there was a park with local art on display. We did want to do some souvenir shopping but that’s always a lower priority than checking out artwork so eastwards we went.

In addition to a few sculptures there was plenty of street art on display on the walls of buildings on Isla Cuale. The quality and style varied but it was a pleasant walk in the shade of the trees which also helped to deaden the sound of traffic from the city. The tranquility obviously appealed to some locals who we spotted in several places sleeping.

At the eastern end of Isla Cuale was the cultural centre, an open space with buildings on three sides. This is apparently a venue for artistic and cultural events. A statue was pretty prominent, that being of the film director John Huston. Created by Carlos Ramírez, it had been erected on the 25th anniversary of the release of the movie Night of the Iguana which had been shot in Puerto Vallarta and helped to put the place on the map internationally.

The inscription on the base of the statue reads:

“We have no reason to feel any sorrow for him, only for ourselves for having lost him. He is irreplaceable. There will never be another like him.” – Huston’s eulogy for Humphrey Bogart.

It’s quite an odd inscription given Bogart wasn’t in the movie.

We had enough time before our bus arrived to pop into a shop selling typical things any tourist visiting Mexico might want to buy. We were any tourists so we came away with a small calavera because it’s a pretty standard thing to pick up as a souvenir and occasionally we like to be pretty standard just to break the monotony of being exceptional.

Silver Shopping In Puerto Vallarta

A short bus ride took us to the dedicated shopping part of this excursion, a store called Jewelry Aviles. It’s not a place with great reviews on TripAdvisor but we had no problems there. We all had a welcome drink on arrival which might have been lemonade and might have been alcoholic. It was nice, whatever it was; that was the important thing. The store itself offered artisan jewellery pieces in one area and more conventional souvenir shopping next door and there was a toilet for customer use that saw a lot of action from our tour group. We didn’t need to go.

Prior to the cruise my wife had expressed an interest in buying some silver in Mexico because that’s something she claimed it’s famous for. I didn’t bother to check if that was true because if my wife wants some silver then silver she shall have no matter what fantastical tale of renowned elements around the world she concocts to explain away her desires. She picked up a silver skull to add to her charm bracelet.

El Set Restaurant

This Puerto Vallarta tour was short enough that food was not included but our next stop did take us to a restaurant. The bus headed south for another couple of kilometres until we reached El Set. On the cliffside overlooking the Pacific Ocean this was a very attractive venue offering some gorgeous views if you were to eat here and coming with some local history too, naturally, as it had been a favourite place for Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor to dine at during the filming of Night of the Iguana. Facing west it’s easy to imagine how spectacular the sunsets must be. Reminders of the movie and the famous diners of the past was present and there was even one of the actual film cameras from the movie shoot on the upper terrace.

One of my most favourite travel experiences ever (so far) occurred during our visit to El Set in Puerto Vallarta. Our group had some time to nose around the restaurant so some people were on the main floor, some were probably seeing if they could get another coffee fix in the restaurant, some were doubtlessly making use of the toilets again (we didn’t need to go), and some were admiring the views out to sea. There were about a dozen or so of us doing the latter activity and while all eyes were distracted elsewhere I glanced to the right where a building a little farther along the coast had a gazebo with a low glass wall. Two men – probably in their late 50s or early 60s – were laughing and making some mildly obscene gestures at our group, none of whom bar me were looking in the right direction. I was prepared to ignore them until one suddenly dropped his shorts and mooned us. The good thing about my camera is I can have the camera resting in my hand to up and shooting in a fraction of a second and I did. The mooning guy’s companion spotted me and laughed and started speaking to his friend who quickly whipped his shorts back up and shuffled away, obviously not expecting to be caught. I smiled and gave the thumbs up to the man who’d spotted me and got a thumbs up back from him. I looked back at our tour group and nobody else had seen a thing. A fabulous moment to experience.

Quinta Las Rosas Garden And Río Bendito Tequila Distillery

We would now be experiencing what our guide described as “Mexico without the make-up” as the final part of our tour took us northwards and away from the shoreline to Quinta Las Rosas, an events location set in some attractive gardens beside a river. While the venue itself would be pretty we would be travelling through a considerably poorer part of Puerto Vallarta to get there.

We very quickly saw a change in the buildings and apparent standards of living but our guide was at pains to point out that things weren’t quite how they looked. Building regulations were pretty much non-existent and the only requirement was to have a water tank connected to the city’s supply so that the risk of everyone trying to use the water supply at the same time could be removed. Mortgages were also apparently not something that really existed so people tended to build when they had saved the money and bought the materials, and stopped when they didn’t. Houses could look a little unfinished as a result but, we were told, inside them it was perfectly typical to find the latest TVs, the best computers, high speed internet, etc. because Mexicans liked their luxuries while the outside appearance didn’t really matter. It was at this point that my wife and I wondered whether we might have Mexican blood in us.

You can see some of the buildings and hear some of the commentary from our tour guide in this short clip (temporarily removed) of our bus ride towards Playa Grande where Quinta Las Rosas was located.

Quinta Las Rosas was a lovely little spot, a great location for weddings or conferences, although you might want to have a word with the venue’s owners if you’re thinking of doing either of those things but don’t like the idea of chickens running around. Quite a few kids riding horses bareback trotted through occasionally too.

The thing we’d really come for, though, was the tequila-tasting operated by Río Bendito which took place after we’d had a tour of the area and an explanation of the distilling process. As much as I like to drink alcohol it never ceases to amaze me how people first came up with the idea of making it.

Several buses had arrived at Quinta Las Rosas at roughly the same time for the tequila explanations and tastings and there were benches lined up in several spots around the garden. We were pleased that we had the only spot under cover as I’m not sure whether what came next would have been quite as enjoyable had the sun been beating down on us during it. Small plastic cups were handed out to everyone and we were then given very small measures of eight different tequilas, four of them flavoured liqueurs; descriptions of the drink, a toast, and drinking then occurred for each of them in turn. I don’t mind tequila in a drink but it’s usually with a mixer rather than neat while my wife is proud to say she hates the stuff. You might be wondering why we wanted to do the tasting at all but when in Mexico as they say, and part of the appeal of travelling for us is experiencing what other cultures get up to even if that means putting up with a little discomfort every now and then.

Not only were all the tequilas surprisingly lovely – even their most basic one with the shortest ageing was smooth with none of that harsh taste we normally associate with tequila – but we decided to pick up a bottle of their longest aged product as it’s the only one they apparently don’t export. Had to be done.

We had time at the end of the tasting to have a wander around the garden a little more and for anyone who wanted to use the toilet to do so. We finally needed to go. A young boy was doing a roaring trade getting dollar tips for effectively handing people paper towels from the pile supplied to dry their hands after using the facilities. Fair play.

That brought our half-day Highlights of Puerto Vallarta tour to an end and all that remained was to jump back on the bus and make our way back to the port where Star Princess was waiting for us. You can see a little bit more of the buildings and the way the landscape changes on the journey back as well as hear a few more bits of information (as well as one final dig about stereotypical misrepresentation from the American media and the country’s current president) from our guide in this final (temporarily removed) short video clip.

This was a very good tour, very well-priced, with plenty packed into its relatively short duration. Puerto Vallarta was a lovely city and the areas along the Malecón and around Isla Cuale in particular look like they have plenty to keep a visitor occupied. Even the less touristy areas through which we drove felt safe and looked to be full of character and it’s a place we’d have no hesitation in recommending or revisiting ourselves, or possibly even moving to if it turns out we really do have Mexican heritage.

If you’ve read the first part of this boat trip then you’ll know that there were three excursion groups on the boat. If not, then you know it now. If you’ve ever been on a cruise excursion that involves bus travel then you know that when you get off and back on the bus you return to the seat you’d previously vacated. If not, then you know that now too. There’s a practical reason there, of course, because people often leave items on the bus but while nobody had left items on the boat common, courtesy – to my mind – would dictate that you still adhere to returning to your previously chosen place on the boat at least until it’s underway and you know where the spare seats are. Not everyone thought that way. The boat had seating on two level and when we’d boarded at Genoa most people had chosen the upper deck for the views but also because the boat was below the boarding level so that was closest to the gangway, leaving us, who’d been near the back of queue, to slink downstairs and to the rear. As it turned out, this was a great location because it meant there wasn’t anyone to get in the way of when photographing and at the three stops along the coast disembarkation would take place from the lower deck so we’d be able to get off the boat quicker. Great, as I said. Unless a couple who’d been sitting upstairs decided that the place you’d been in was much more convenient for them and so take it before you boarded when they got on ahead of you.

As we stood, looking at what had been our spot on the boat while the couple casually looked around and deliberately made sure to not catch our eyes, someone we’d been talking to ashore gestured up the stairs as she was boarding.

“Aren’t you coming up top to sit down?” she asked.

“No,” I replied in a loud voice certain to carry to those for whom it was intended. “I wouldn’t want to sit in someone else’s seats. That would be incredibly, incredibly rude. I wouldn’t know if there had been a group of people there I’d be splitting up or forcing elsewhere just because I found somewhere better I wanted. I’m just not that selfish.”

It’s true, I’m not that selfish. But I am very petty. The place where we had been sitting had had great views mostly because nobody had been standing up, leaning against the railing just in front of it. That was no longer true for the couple who’d taken our seats because I made bloody well sure of it for the duration of our next bit of boating. It’s worth noting that the couple chose another place on the boat following this stop on the day trip.

And so to the photos I took along the first part of this boat trip from Camogli. Unlike the first part heading to that fishing village the landscape we passed was far more wild, less decorated with buildings, and we were close enough to see some lovely rock formations and strata.

Our boat then took a slow turn into a small bay where a shallow beach in front of a steep, wooded hill hosted a church with attractive sea-facing cloisters. This was San Fruttuoso and the church was the San Fruttuoso Abbey, named for Fructuosus, a saint and former bishop of a place we very much liked in Spain, Tarragona, and quite possibly the patron saint of ketonic monosaccharides based on his name if I had to guess but don’t quote me on that and certainly don’t let that information slip into any chemistry papers you’re about to hand in.

San Fruttuoso can only be reached on foot or by water which makes the construction of the church here an impressive if strange feat of building from the tenth century onwards. You always find those people who claim that life must include a little bit of suffering and that nothing worth doing is easy but I’ve found that these generally tend to be people who didn’t realise there was a simpler way to do something and want to try to persuade others they meant to make things far more complicated than they needed to be for a super secret reason. Why, yes, I do know lots of project managers.

Here! Let us build a church here, set back from the water’s edge. Let us take donations from people far and wide and hire stonemasons and boats and everything!

Why don’t we build the church on the ridge up there? Lovely views, it’s by a road so transportation costs are down, easier to get to by locals since there’s no steep hill to clamber up and down, and no need for boats.

I’ve already put the plan into my spreadsheet with coloured columns.

Spreadsheets haven’t been invented yet! He’s a witch!

It’s no surprise that the abbey fell into disrepair in the seventeenth century but its later restoration and the transformation of the area into a secluded, sheltered tourist location complete with an underwater statue that people on boats may have been checking out, Christ of the Abyss, make San Fruttuoso a charming diversion along the Ligurian coast.

A short view of the pretty bay complete, we carried on with the planned trip and found ourselves passing the headland behind which Portofino was located. On the rocky outcrop of the headland was the Portofino Lighthouse and regular readers of this site – humour me – will know I’m a sucker for a lighthouse. We would be stopping at Portofino during this boat trip excursion but not just yet.

Even though we were only passing Portofino for the time being you couldn’t help but notice some of its jet set lifestyle reputation spilling out to sea in the form of some yachts that I don’t even want to guess at the price of.

It was only a short boat ride from this point to the municipality that was the second of our day’s stops which we approached swiftly, passing noticeably lower land and a growing number of buildings as we made for its port.

This was Santa Margherita Ligure and one of its main attractions was something our boat slid by just as it was docking: the Castello di Santa Margherita Ligure is these days a memorial to the fallen dead of World War I but its original purpose was to defend against pirate attacks, something that it did from its construction in the middle of the sixteenth century through to around the eighteenth century when piracy ceased.

We were given the option of having a short tour with our guide or exploring what Santa Margherita Ligure had to offer on our own ahead of a meet-up at the port again for the next part of our day’s excursion and we elected to choose the latter after a quick look at the map had indicated there wasn’t a whole lot to see so we might as well do our own thing. The first thing we encountered was a statue to Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of a unified Italy, and a man who had been both excommunicated then readmitted into the Catholic Church and had been described by the British foreign secretary at the time as “an imbecile; he is a dishonest man who tells lies to everyone” which is both something that our current Prime Minister and former foreign secretary might also say these days openly about foreign leaders and be used as an apt description of him.

We headed towards the centre of the town where our guide had indicated there was a church of some note.

The church was the Santuario di Nostra Signora della Rosa which, like the basilica we’d seen in Camogli, was in the baroque style and adorned with another fine example of Risseu, the black and white pebble decorations, at its entrance. This house of worship had also formerly been a basilica, dedicated to Saint Margaret of Antioch, and while its construction dates to the middle of the seventeenth century there is evidence that a church of some description – likely a Marian cult – had existed on the spot from as early as the thirteenth. The stuccos and frescoes were very typical of the period and barely left a spot undecorated in the interior of the church. There was a lot to see and if you’re a fan of the art that thrived in the late renaissance and early modern periods of history then you won’t be disappointed with some time spent here.

With nothing exciting jumping out at us on the map historically we decided to take a wander through what appeared to be the main shopping area on the lookout for potential souvenirs but drew a blank there as well and didn’t find a lot very worthy of photography either other than a statue of Guiseppe Mazzini, a political activist and revolutionary (which, to be fair, almost everyone in Italy at that time was; seriously, that country was just one big mess of revolutions back then), and another example of trompe-l’œil wall decorations, a very popular thing in the region.

With few thrills to be found inland we returned to the promenade area of Santa Margherita Ligure. It was attractive enough with its stone and rock jetties and its wooden piers but there didn’t feel like there was enough of a draw in the place as a whole for us. Indeed, we talked to someone who’d been on the same excursion at the end of the day back aboard Emerald Princess and he said a similar thing in that Camogli had been a lot smaller but felt like somewhere you could spend a day or two whereas Santa Margherita Ligure had a lot more space yet lacked an intangible quality that made you want to remain for long.

We found ourselves back at the port and the meeting place for the boat ahead of schedule to find almost everyone else was there ahead of us so clearly not a lot in the town engaged the time of most of the other people in our tour groups either. With perhaps a little more time at this port stop we would have attempted to see if the castle was open although its small size didn’t seem to indicate it would have held our attention for too long. The sun was starting to burn off the cloud cover at this point although it may not look like it from the photos so it was getting warm enough to send us away from the water’s edge where we’d been observing the seabirds of the region and scurrying for the shade of nearby trees while we waited. A sculpture to a “man of the sea” doing an early Instagram pose by Ligurian sculptor Leonardo Lustig caught the eye.

In the next part of this travelogue series we’ll retrace our steps – well, our boating wake, I suppose – and head the short distance back along the coast to Portofino, playground of the rich and famous, and well known for its pretty views down to its harbour from the hills surrounding it.

The sun hadn’t quite risen when I stepped out onto the balcony during Emerald Princess’s final approach into the port.

One thing we’ve noticed about this part of the world now across a few cruises is that it’s very susceptible to summer storms. Breakfast was accompanied by a downpour and lovely rainbow, and the clouds rolled in again as our tour bus left the port which then led to several large lightning strikes near the ship. Having seen quite a few people walking off our vessel and others nearby to do their own thing in Livorno we barely managed to suppress grins as we imagined how soaked they must be getting.

Fortunately for us, though, we left the thick cloud cover of the coastline in our wake (that’s a cruise-related idiom absolutely free of charge for you) as we drove inland and by the time we reached our first stop we had only a thin sheet of cloud and the Mediterranean warmth with which to tolerate.

Brace yourself now for some useful information regarding this excursion to San Gimignano in case you’re thinking of doing it while on a cruise and you have some mobility issues. The view from where the bus parks is fabulous as you can tell from the photos below – those green fields, gentle hills, the cypress trees and vineyards clearly visible making you fairly confident this is Italy even without knowing that for certain – but this is a good five minutes away on foot from the town itself and it’s at the bottom of a reasonably significant slope to get to San Gimignano’s level. The town itself is also not exactly flat, although the slopes in the narrow alleys between the buildings tend to be far more gentle.

From the car park it was up the sloping road, up the next sloping road, up the set of steps, then towards the gate at the southern end of the town. This was the Porta San Giovani, easily identifiable by its close proximity to the Bastione San Francesco, part of the medieval, walled defences of San Gimignano.

And now for a brief history lesson. The site of San Gimignano has likely been occupied going back into prehistory but there is evidence to show there was a settlement during the Etruscan period. The legend of the town’s formation dates to the first century BCE and the erection of a castle there by one of a pair of brothers fleeing Rome. The name of San Gimignano comes from around 450 CE when a bishop intervened to prevent the town’s destruction by ostrogoths rampaging in the area.

The middle ages saw the town start to flourish as it was on both a trading route and pilgrimage route in Italy but the Italian penchant for territorial and religious disputes necessitated fortifications being built too. The towers for which San Gimignano is most famous came about thanks to factions within the town supporting either the Guelphs or Ghibellines, the groups who favoured either the Pope or the Holy Roman Emperor as ruler of the country, and family rivalries saw towers of increasing size being constructed. At one point there were seventy two towers in San Gimignano, the tallest of which rose to seventy metres in height. Only fourteen towers remain.

San Gimignano’s demise as an important town coincided with the arrival of the Black Death in 1348. Half the people died and the town fell under the rule of nearby Florence but investment ceased. It wasn’t until the nineteenth century that the fairly well-preserved medieval town with its impressive skyline architecture began to be seen as a tourist destination and started to attract visitors and artists back within its walls.

Fans of confusing geometrical terms will be pleased to know that the main square of San Gimignano is in the shape of a triangle. Piazza della Cisterna has a name that conjures up imagery of the back of a toilet but is a very pleasant area, surrounded on all sides by brick buildings with some lovely views of the famous towers and with two attractions of note. The most obvious of these is the octagonal pedestal over the top of the cistern from which the three-sided square gets its name. The cistern was constructed in 1287 while its decorative top is a later addition from 1346.

The second attraction is a shop: Gelateria Dondoli has won numerous awards for its gelato so if you fancy some of the Italian delicacy to fight off the heat and humidity of this part of the world then that seems to be the place to visit. We were advised by our tour guide to head there early if we wanted any as there would likely be a queue later. We decided instead to make use of the free time now afforded us to see what else San Gimignano had to offer.

The main thing San Gimignano had to offer was views of the towers for the time we had during this part of the day’s excursion. Adjacent to the Piazza della Cisterna was the Piazza del Duomo. These two open spaces provide the nicest views of the towers from within the town and this second square was lined with cafés, the town hall, and the Collegiate Church up a set of steps.

The biggest problem we find with organised tours – especially those like this one that incorporate several stops during the day – is that you always run the risk of either having too much time in a place you’re not interested in or not enough to really experience all that a place has to offer. San Gimignano felt like it belonged in the former category during the first five minutes of wandering around . I took photos, of course, seeking out different angles to snap the towers as they were the things that appeared to be most interesting prior to booking this trip, but we quickly reached a point where we’d run out of things to see.

However, the reason we’d run out of things to see, perversely, was because after about five minutes we realised there was a lot more to San Gimignano than we’d realised – the church housed some interesting frescoes, apparently, and there was an art museum plus a torture museum and a museum dedicated to the death penalty (these places always attract us), more churches, art galleries, and potential visits to the towers too – but we were either too early to visit some of them or there was just not enough time to see what was open in any detail at all so we had to eliminate them as options. Just an extra half an hour in San Gimignano would have given us the chance to see or do something on our own but we had to be content with just walking about and shooting photos. That was a real shame.

We briefly wandered into the courtyard area of Dormitorio dei Cappellani where the Museum of Sacred Art was located but wondered whether we’d accidentally bypassed the place where you might have to buy tickets to view what was inside so quickly made an exit.

Our meeting point was back in Piazza della Cisterna so it was to there that we made our way and where we discovered our guide had been right about the queue that would form at the gelateria. More tour groups had clearly arrived in the town and we spotted strangers and people we recognised from our bus too among those lined up to buy some gelato and those eating it near the the cistern pedestal. As for us, we found a souvenir shop and parted with some Euros inside.

Once everyone had arrived and had their heads counted (we all had one, as expected) we were then led back through the narrow Via San Giovani street southwards to the gate through which we’d arrived and back down the steps and sloping roads to the car park where our bus awaited. The car park backs onto a supermarket and the final photo I took in the area of San Gimignano was of a nun pushing a trolley which amused me for some reason.

To summarise this excursion to San Gimignano I’d say that as a tour it didn’t have enough to recommend it. However, San Gimignano is a place worthy of a visit to see what the town has to offer in its own right. I think we could quite happily spend half a day to a day here if we were in the region.

This was only the first of three activities lined up for this cruise tour from Emerald Princess, though, and with San Gimignano finished our next stop would be to a winery for a light lunch and some wine-tasting. I won’t lie: that was an important factor in picking this excursion in the first place. The wine-tasting will be covered in the next post in this cruise travelogue series and after that will come our visit to Pisa and its famous leaning tower to cap off a very tower-heavy day of exploring this part of Italy.

I can’t believe that…

SHUT UP!

It’s no good. The realisation that it’s the last evening on board the cruise ship will break free. You cannot stop it. You cannot prevent its escape into the real world accompanied by the sound of The Ultimate Sadness Sigh. You’ll look at your travel partner with downturned lips and you’ll both know you lost the battle.

We both knew as soon as we headed back to our cabin at the end of our day docked at Livorno. The visits to San Gimignano, the winery for wine tasting, then Pisa had performed wonders at distracting us and entertaining us but there’s nothing quite like stepping into the corridor leading towards your room and seeing that some people had already placed cases outside their cabins to hammer home that it’s almost time to say goodbye to the cruise ship.

Cruising Out Of Livorno

As it had been a full day’s excursion in Italy we didn’t have too long to wait before Emerald Princess departed. After a couple of quick showers to freshen up we headed out onto the balcony to watch our last sailaway on board.

We weren’t the only ship in port as you’d expect. In addition to numerous cargo transporters there were two other cruise ships as well. We’d passed by a Pullmantur vessel as we’d arrived at the port from our day’s excursion on land though we couldn’t see that from our balcony on the starboard side of our ship, but we could see the MSC Fantasia clearly getting ready to depart from the Italian port behind us too.

The port of Livorno is protected by a couple of breakwaters, the main one of which is shaped a little like a sickle and marked with lighthouses at a few points along its length. The channel for a ship to exit Livorno is fairly narrow so we got a good close view of these harbour-defending walls and the marker buildings as we slowly slipped away to sea. We’re fairly fond of spotting lighthouses when we’re travelling around the world. In my wife’s case it’s because she has a thing for round rooms and has always said she’d love to live in a tower or oast house; for me, maybe it’s just the connection to being on the water that strikes a ship’s bell in my heart.

With our angle changing as we cleared the breakwaters we got a better view back to Livorno from our balcony and a clear sight of Fantasia following in our wake plus the Pullmantur cruise ship still in the dock.

Mediterranean Sunset

An early evening departure from a port timed to coincide with the setting of the sun is hard to beat if you’re looking for a moment of quiet relaxation. Apart from the low thrum of the ship’s engines and the sound of the waves being sliced apart by the prow and the battering of the eardrums by the wind as the vessel picks up speed and the thump-thump-thump from the top deck as the house band play some sailaway tunes and the constant sliding open and slamming shut of doors on balconies all around and the occasional scrape of furniture from a neighbour above, beside, or below it really is one of the most tranquil feelings in the world.

Eating And Drinking On Emerald Princess

It wouldn’t be a day aboard a cruise ship if we weren’t throwing the odd cocktail down our throats and tucking into some fabulous fare from one of the dining venues. The last night aboard Emerald Princess included some cocktails…

… and the last night aboard Emerald Princess included some fabulous fare from the main dining room. In the past this final meal would have felt a little awkward as with cases being put out we would typically be in travelling-home gear (jeans, trainers, souvenir tee-shirt advertising to everyone on the plane or at the airport just how fancy pants we’d been, that sort of thing) and when you’ve been used to dressing at least smart casual for the evening meal then this casual casual acceptable dress code really tended to accentuate that Everyone Is Looking At Me And Judging Me feeling that us terminal introverts carry with us everywhere. However, that was all before The Incident With The Delayed Luggage, since which time we’ve made far more use of hand luggage for clothing and thus now include a smart casual outfit for just such a No Case situation. So, looking the part even if we felt bereft inside we enjoyed a last, lovely dinner.

Generally speaking, my wife zeroes in on meat and seafood when eating while I tend to avoid seafood (I like fish (and probably more so than my wife) but just thinking about someone trying to eat a whelk or mussel is triggering a gag reflex) and am generally more experimental with dishes. As you can see from the menu above we were both going to be well looked-after for the last night’s meal. My wife opted for the Crispy Pork Belly with Orange Glaze while my starter was the Chilled Cucumber and Yoghurt Soup.

My wife’s main course was the Mariner-Style Black Mussels in White Wine Cream Sauce which, I won’t deny, always looks pretty sophisticated. Smells vile and turns my stomach to even consider eating one, naturally. I selected Moroccan-Style Meatballs instead and extraordinarily lovely it all was too.

If you’ve cruised before or read any of my other cruise travelogues recounting the final night aboard any ship then you’ll know that the Baked Alaska Parade is a staple of many lines and certainly Princess can be included amongst them. My wife had a slice, as is traditional, but for a change I just chose some chocolate ice cream. I was just feeling in a chocolate ice cream place. It might have been the impending end of the cruise.

It’s Not Quite Over

That almost brings me to the conclusion of this week in the Mediterranean aboard Emerald Princess but there will be one more post in this cruise diary series. If we get the opportunity then we try to include a disembarkation tour in our travels, especially if we’re finishing somewhere unfamiliar or with a lot to see. As it turned out, the final port for us would be Civitavecchia, the port for Italy’s capital, Rome. While the port was one we’d visited before (albeit briefly and only during embarkation for the last time we were in this part of the world) we’d never been to Rome before so the chance for a quick nose to get a feel for the place before flying back to England was one we couldn’t pass up. You can read about our disembarkation excursion in Rome in the next and final part of this series.

While the in-laws had needed to use the car ferry to get from Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight (on account of them taking their car, you see) we had no such limitation with the mode of transportation available and, because we’re children at heart and because it’s the best way to get there, we took the hovercraft. And why wouldn’t you? If you’re just visiting the Isle of Wight for a short trip (which is all you’ll ever need) then pick the way to get there that involves rapidly spinning propellers deafening you and a massive curtain of air bouncing you across the Solent. It’s better than I’m making it sound.

At Ryde we were met by the relations and set off to see some Wight sights. As we were all fans of seeing historical sites – we all still are – we headed first for Osborne House, former summer home for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Built in the mid-nineteenth century in the Italian Renaissance style with design input from Prince Albert, the location was chosen as the views from this part of the Isle of Wight across the Solent reminded Albert of the Bay of Naples. Having been to Naples on a couple of occasions now I can attest to the fact that drugs were obviously readily available to the royals of Victoria-era Britain.

As it was cloudy when we first arrived we visited the house to start with. Victoria liked Osborne a lot, spending time at the house several times a year both before and after Albert died. Victoria died in Osborne House in 1901 after which her son, King Edward VII, who’d never liked the building, gifted it to the state. At the time of our visit we weren’t permitted to take photographs inside Osborne (this policy has now changed) but if we had then you might have sympathised with Edward. Gaudy doesn’t even come close to the impression we had. Taste is a very subjective thing, but wow!

By the time we’d emerged from Osborne’s eye-aching interior the day had brightened up considerably and we were presented with some lovely views. Still not very Neapolitan, though.

During our time at Osborne we also took a horse-and-cart ride to see the Swiss Cottage. This building had been deconstructed, transported from Switzerland, and rebuilt in the grounds specifically for the royal children to play in. In addition, the children were given plots of land in which to grow produce and sell them to their father as a means to teach economics. I can’t imagine why Edward didn’t like the place.

From Osborne House on the north coast of the Isle of Wight we then drove across to the west side of the island to see the landmark that is The Needles. These are chalk stacks, in some ways reminiscent of the basalt stacks off southern Iceland, although, since these are English natural formations and not Icelandic ones there is no myth about them being trolls turned into stone. The name of the three stacks derives from a fourth stack that has since collapsed into the sea and which was somewhat needle-shaped; something that can’t be said for those that remain. The Jaggedy Toothy Things doesn’t quite have the same ring to it as The Needles, though.

While you could just simply admire the views from the cliffs and down to Alum Bay (where you can pick up coloured sand souvenirs) there are some activities that can be undertaken at The Needles and on this visit to the Isle of Wight we did just that. Firstly, there was a chairlift for those who didn’t want to hurl themselves off the cliff edge and trust to the softness of the sand below (other routes down may have been available). We’re fond of a chairlift, and even if the one on the Isle of Wight doesn’t quite have the altitude and distance to travel as that we rode on up the Osorno Volcano in Chile, there’s still something magical about flying out over the top of a cliff with a view to the sea, and it’s a recommended experience.

Even though this day trip to the Isle of Wight took place almost a decade before we got married and enjoyed our first cruise you can tell the love of being on the water was there from early on in our relationship (well, we are both Portsmouth people, after all) as the next thing we did was hop on a boat to get out closer to The Needles. This also brought us some lovely close-up views of the Needles Lighthouse and we do like a nice lighthouse. The one off the west coast of the island dates from the nineteenth century although some form of navigational warning beacon had been present in the area almost a century earlier. Fully automated now, it was also fully automated back then too, although it had been one of the last three lighthouses in the country to be manned, said men (or women) having last served in the structure in 1994.

There isn’t a huge amount to see and do on the Isle of Wight but we have neglected it as a place to explore and we really must make the effort to get over there again and do so. I’ll add it to the list.